“A lot of people thought my performance at Birkdale was an anomaly in some ways,” Norman said recently.

“To me it wasn’t. It just convinces me even more of the fact that anybody, no matter how old they are or what position they are in life, if they really want to focus their mind onto doing something, it’s very of achievable.”

Norman isn’t discounting his chances at Turnberry this week, though he was more willing stake a claim for winning the Senior British Open at the Sunningdale Golf Club next week, putting his chances there at “high”.

“I’m definitely going to go into the British Open wanting to compete the best I can compete,” he said.

“That’s all I can say. Setting goals and making cuts, being in the last group, that really doesn’t even set in your mind. If you go in there and just do what I want to do, which is compete the best I can, then all those things should be taken care of.”

Norman wasn’t using his age as an excuse and was pushing his experience as a positive.

“I understand exactly my position, what my mind and my body can give me,” he said. “You always try and push those to another level no matter whether you’re No. 1 in the world or whether you’re 54 years old and going to play a few golf tournaments. You’ve always got to push yourself.

“I wouldn’t say I could win on any golf course. I couldn’t go to a 7,700-yard U.S. Open golf course, where the young swivel heads play, and feel like I can do it. That would be a big ask. But I can go and compete on some of these golf courses out there that, you know, 80 or 85 percent of them. I still hit the ball 300-plus yards when I want to. So it’s not like I’m hamstrung by the fact that I’m only hitting the ball 250 yards.”

He strongly believes that links golf gives experienced players with a bigger repertoire of shots an advantage.

“I think that’s the secret to it,” he said. “The younger generation nowadays that grew up with the modern technology hasn’t had the ability to teach themselves how to play certain shots.”